It's hard to tell from the VRBO listing, but this property requires you bring some of what I would consider "expected sundry items", including dish towels, dish rags, dish soap, toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags, miscellaneous spices, etc. These aren't critical things, but they are relatively standard at many of the rentals I've stayed at before. The VRBO listing doesn't do a good job of making this clear, but the property owner is quick to draw this to your attention so you can cancel if you want (kudos to the property owner for being prompt with this communication as well). What is annoying is that the home only has 4 spoons though it sleeps 12... so bring spoons if you do book this property.
The lack of stars and the lack of a recommendation really come down to the cleanliness of the home. When we arrived, we noticed a few mice droppings throughout; mainly in corners and under things like the microwave. Looking at prior reviews, we noticed others had mentioned mice, but hoped the property owner was aware of the problem and addressing it. Much to our dismay, after the first night at the house, we had some food raided by mice and found mouse droppings all throughout the kitchen area. I gave the property owner a call and while he was understanding, he did not make any concessions to compensate us for the compromised food nor did he indicate any effort would be made to address the rodent issue. I understand the house is in the country, but there are things you can do to knock down and outright eliminate rodent problems. I know because I have had mice in my home and I also live next to acres upon acres of corn fields so it's not an impossible task. We ended up getting a few mouse traps and caught a couple of mice over the next two nights.
A few things to know, the internet is what is available in the country, so don't expect to stream movies, but it's more than sufficient to check emails from time-to-time. The property is actually on a beautiful private lake, the property manager is actually a very nice person as is the property owner.
I actually feel somewhat bad for leaving a poor review, but there is a minimum standard of effort to maintain a clean property I expect. I can understand if there's a newly discovered rodent problem, but the complete apathy toward the known rodent situation from the property owner is the reason I can't recommend this rental to others.
